mourns. and i wanted to take a moment of silencefornewtown, connecticut.if you'd join me, please. thank you. i will tell you that this is an exciting day for many, many reasons, but for me the first thing i wanted to say is just thank you to my lord and savior, jesus christ, to be honester with you. i believe that -- [applause] when you start out in a single-participant household with a mom who would works 16 ha day and you're looking at a future that doesn't look as bright and you're living in north charleston, south carolina, you build a strength that comes from having the appreciation -- >> so we're going to break away from this program. you can watch all of this if you'd like on our web site, c-span.org. take you live now to the floor of the u.s. senate back in, starting legislative business here at 2:00 eastern. live coverage, as always, right here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. almighty and everlasting god, in whom we live and move and have our being,

of the horrific shootinginnewtown, connecticut,on friday, it was impossible for me not to react not just as a senator, but as a parent, as a father. and as my wife and i spent the weekend reflecting on the heartbreaks loss of 20 innocent children and 6 of their teachers and faculty, as we talked to our own three young children about what had happened, we thought about the grief, the anguish. a whole range of different parents deeply touched by this tragic incident. the first, of course, are the parents who lost their precious, innocent children. their six- and seven-year olds in the massacre at sandy hook elementary school last friday. parents like joel and joann baker who lost their precocious outgoing red-haired daughter charlotte just six years old. joann recently bought charlotte a holiday dress in her favorite color -- pink -- and a pair of white boots. charlotte begged and begged to wear her new outfit early and on friday, december 14, the last day of charlotte's young life, her mother joann agreed. or parents like steve and rebecca kowalski, who lost their son chase. two days befo

to the victims and familyinnewtown, connecticut.as a nation, we join together to express our grief and to offer support and comfort to this community. our thoughts and prayers are with families who have suffered from this senseless act. from time to time, i've given my colleagues an update regarding the facts of judicial confirmations. and despite our steady progress on confirmations, we continue to hear complaints from bar associations, interest groups, editorial boards, and even some fellow senators. of course, these are the same groups that remain silent or at the time cheered on the efforts to block judicial nominees of the previous president. multiple filibusters, failures to hold hearings, pocket filibusters of one sort or another, and other tactics of delay and obstruction were routinely used against prech's nominees. by the end of his presidency, president bush had 53 nominees that were not confirmed. that is, nearly 1 out of 7 that were blocked. somehow history seems to have faded. today we continue to confirm this president's nominees. even in a lame-duck presidential ele

bring to this debate personal experience. the tragedyinnewtown, connecticut,struck a chord with americans. we have to respond. it is confiscated and hard, but we can get the job done to calibrate legislation that really is effective. love animals and music and those who mourn the lives of their teachers, principal of the school. and we have been ensuring the safety of our schools and neighborhoods and to build future of safety for all americans. with that, i'm very pleased to introduced introduced this inspiration to the nation. >> thank you, leader closely. i want to thank my colleagues. we have been here before. we have been here before. but this time, the time is different. i want to thank you for the coverage that you have given the rest of the country to read the stories that have been going on in newtown, connecticut. all too often we see these mass killings. we mourn for those who have died in the past. yet, all of our lives go on. this time it is different. we all know it. .. abbas has been great before christmas and my son was fighting for his life in icu on chris

to the people of coolencestonewtown, connecticut.last week an unspeakable act off people killed 20 innocentdren children and six amazing adultsl change int our country and thehk committee around sandy hook elementary school for ever. as a nation we continue to stanr by the people of newtown and let them up in our prayers and i now yield to my friend, congressman andrews for any comments you may have. >> good morning, chairman, and defer beginning our gathering with the appropriate memorial to those who suffered such a loss in connecticut, and across the country. this is the committee on education and labor. and the idea that such an act of pure unadulterated evil could take place in a school in this country is not something we can easily -- suffice it to say that there is unanimous feeling i know on this committee that our hearts and prayers go out to all those afflicted by this unspeakable loss. there is a higher purpose inpurn life than politics, is lovingli, chilchildren. and extending that love to those who suffered from thisdr is something i am certainly would join you in with

couple of days for america. we're so deeply saddened to hear the newsfromnewtown, connecticut,on friday. as a parent, nothing in life is more important than the protection of our children. the death of a child, there is no recovery from. my heart goes out to all the families who lost loved ones in this unspeakable tragedy. last night, we learned the death of -- learned of the death of our colleague, senator inouye. i want to mention today that just this past sunday, over the weekend, grief struck the capital city of kansas in my home state. officer jeff athalate fatally shot while on duty, investigating drug activity occurring inside a vehicle outside a neighborhood grocery store. as they approached the vehicle and orbded the okay -- ordered the occupants to get out the gunmen took the lives of both officers. when we lose someone in a community in kansas, it's not just a name. it's somebody we go to church with. it's somebody we know and care about. these individuals are that to their friends and family in topeka and across our state. david had been part of the topeka police

in with the news of a massacre of innocent childreninnewtown, connecticut,followed by the loss of our wonderful colleague, senator danny inouye so i will leave this extraordinary institution and experience with a heavy heart for those who have been lost just in the last few days. i do want to thank the people of texas for asking me to represent them in washington. i want to thank the many people who have served on my staff for almost 20 years. i have to say i am touched that both benches on both sides of this room are filled with my staff members who have been so hardworking and so loyal and have produced so much in 20 years for our state and nation, and i thank them. i do want to thank my colleagues and all the people who work here -- senators, but also those who work behind the scenes to make our lives as good as they can be with the hard hours that we all have. those who keep our buildings safe and clean, who work in the libraries, the shops, the cafeterias, and who guide tens of thousands of tourists through our nation's beautiful capitol each year. i want to thank my husband ray and our tw

. and somewhere we seem to go on astray. we go astray now from what we learninnewtown, connecticut.we go astray when we see how some of us treat each other in this chamber. the old adage is not just to go along to get along. you get along a lot better if you get along. or to put it in the old country boy wisdom, you can attract a lot more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. that's the life that our colleague led. some people call it a throwback to the gentlemanly days of the united states senate, a throwback when courtliness and deference -- i hope it's not a throwback. i hope we're not throwing back anything. i hope we will remember the life of danny inouye. he -- he -- he felt this so strongly that when he was a chairman of committee, he didn't refer to the ranking republican as the ranking member. he called them the vice chairm chairman. now, of course, that was uniquely senator inouye but it also was practical. because he could get more done if he's sitting there as chairman and his vice chairman is sitting right next to him. and so we have a lot to learn in these emotional times of